1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a guide channel for energy transmission chains with long, parallel side elements, between which an energy transmission chain can be laid in the longitudinal direction, where the guide channel is composed of several side elements arranged with their face ends next to one another in the longitudinal direction of the channel.
2. Prior Art
Guide channels of this kind are used to guide energy transmission chains which are used to accommodate flexible supply lines for electricity, gases, fluids or the like and lead these to a moveable consumer. They are particularly used where the energy transmission chains have long travel paths, e.g. in plant construction, materials handling, etc., but are not restricted to such applications.
During the travel motion of the moveable consumer, the energy transmission chains, which are flexible in at least one direction, are laid down or picked up in or from the guide channels by an unrolling and rerolling motion. In this context, when travelling over long paths in a rerolling motion of the energy transmission chain, the upper section of the same, known as the upper strand, moves in sliding fashion on the lower section of the energy transmission chain, known as the lower strand, lying in the guide channel. If the connecting elements of the energy transmission chain are mounted in the middle of the travel path on the guide channel, the upper strand slides on the lower strand over one half of the travel path of the energy transmission chain. In order to ensure simple traversing of the energy transmission chain over the other half of the travel path as well, the guide channels are mostly provided with sliding rails located on the side walls of the guide channels, so that the upper strand can be moved on the sliding rails.
Hitherto known guide channels for energy transmission chains are mostly arranged on a substructure in non-slip fashion by means of fastening elements, where fastening of the side elements arranged parallel to one another on the substructure is accomplished using angle brackets, each of which is fastened by means of one bolted connection on the side elements with abutting face ends and one bolted connection on the substructure. The substructure used often consists of C-shaped sections arranged transversely to the longitudinal direction of the guide channels, where the lock nut for securing the angle brackets is located in the C-shaped sections in longitudinally moveable fashion to allow infinitely variable gaps to be set between the side elements of the guide channels. Furthermore, there are also guide channels designed in the form of U-shaped sections.
The guide channels known to date are mostly made of sheet steel with a thickness of approx. 2 mm, which may also be profiled in order to increase the rigidity. To fasten the sliding rails, the side walls and the sliding rails are provided with throug-hholes, so that the sliding rails can be fastened to the side walls of the guide channels by means of bolted connections.
The disadvantages of guide channels of this kind are their relatively high weight and the outward-projecting, occasionally sharp-edged areas of the angle brackets of the bolted connections used for fastening the sliding rails, or folded areas of the side walls serving, inter alia, to reinforce the guide channels. In addition, rapid travel motion of the consumer supplied by means of the energy transmission chain entails severe noise generation, owing to the rapid laying of the energy transmission chain onto the guide channel. Consequently, the field of application of the guide channels is on the whole restricted to relatively rough designs in the plant construction sector.
Furthermore, a generic guide channel is known from DE 41 40 910 C1, where the side elements consist of thin metal facing sheets with a plastic core or corrugated profile between. The side elements are secured on a supporting section by means of wedges. In this context, the clamping effect is increased owing to the elastic design of the side elements, the result being that the side elements are elastically deformed upon being fastened to the supporting section. Thus, the side walls display only little inherent rigidity. The laterally protruding wedges can unintentionally be loosened if exposed to external forces and, together with the laterally projecting substructure, form a host of projections which may have a disturbing effect and prevent the guide channel being designed with an essentially smooth outer surface.